Kremlin Stalwart Gets Dumped

Moscow Party Chief May Lose Politburo Post, Too

December 25, 1985|By Thom Shanker, Chicago Tribune.

MOSCOW — A prominent member of the Kremlin old guard was dumped Tuesday from his post as head of Moscow`s city Communist Party organization, a move analysts say foreshadows his removal from the ruling Politburo as well.

The discharge of Viktor Grishin, 71, bore the stamp of Kremlin leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who attended the Moscow party meeting, according to the official news agency Tass.

Western analysts said it was unusual for Gorbachev, as national party general secretary, to take part in a working session of the Moscow

organization.

Grishin was replaced by Boris Yeltsin, 54, who was promoted by Gorbachev last July as a secretary to the party Central Committee.

Gorbachev has made the hallmark of his 9-month tenure the removal of those thought to defy his twin goals of industrial efficiency and corruption- free management. In addition, he has promoted a number of younger, educated technocrats to key posts.

In a four-sentence statement published by Tass, Grishin`s downfall was reported as the decision of a plenary session of the Moscow Communist Party Committee, which he has chaired since 1967.

The Moscow party plenum removed Grishin of his duties ``due to his retirement,`` Tass said.

One of the few remaining members of the Kremlin coterie promoted by former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, Grishin rose to nonvoting membership on the ruling Politburo in 1961, and full membership a decade later.

Grishin was mentioned as a compromise candidate to succeed the late Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko last March. However, Gorbachev was elected to the post and Grishin has been in disfavor ever since.

Western Kremlin watchers predicted Grishin will, in addition, be removed from the Politburo.

Grishin`s discharge from duty illustrated, once again, the imperfection of predictions by Western Kremlinologists.

Analysts repeatedly had said that by surviving October`s full session of the Communist Party Central Committee, Grishin`s position would be safe at least until February`s party congress.

The ouster of Grishin had been a near-certainty since last summer. At that time, he came under indirect attack via official newspaper accounts dealing with improprieties in food distribution and apartment construction by Moscow Mayor Vladimir Promyslov.

Rumors reaching Western residents in Moscow also report other corruption investigations, focusing on actions by members of the local government and party.

Since assuming power in March, Gorbachev has removed 17 of the Soviet Union`s 64 ministers; ousted his chief Politburo rival, Grigory Romanov;

brought 4 supporters to full Politburo membership; and replaced 20 percent of local party officials.

In September, Gorbachev engineered the dignified retirement of Nikolai Tikhonov, the octogenarian Politburo member who served also as premier.

In addition, veteran Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko was relieved of that position this summer and appointed to the largely ceremonial post of president.

Besides Grishin, Gorbachev and his allies are expected to seek the removal of two other Brezhnev-era Politburo appointees: Vladimir Shcherbitsky and Dinmukhamed Kunaev.

The new Moscow boss, Yeltsin, is expected to be promoted to a Politburo position in keeping with the importance of the Soviet capital`s party committee, Western analysts said.

According to informed sources, Yeltsin became a Communist Party member in 1961, and in 1976 was promoted to the party secretary post for Sverdlovsk, the Ural community that is the power base for Nikolai Ryzhkov, the new premier.

Experts caution that despite the rapidity with which Gorbachev has installed his allies to top positions, he still faces a potentially arduous task in dealing with the entrenched mid-level bureacracy in the drive for economic renewal.